by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Economy, Markets, News, SMEs, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : At nearly $940 billion, Apple is certainly well on the way to becoming the world’s first trillion dollar company — and the feat could be achieved as early as the end of this year with upcoming iPhone launches.
The tech giant crossed the $900 billion market capitalisation mark in November last year following the launch of its “super premium” iPhone X and, according to CEO Tim Cook, in India,”we set a new first-half record” as Apple reported record results for the first quarter of 2018.
However, in India — the world’s third-largest smartphone market — the Cupertino-based iPhone maker has not crossed sales of 2-3 per cent despite arriving in the country almost a decade back.
Trying hard to make inroads, the company is currently going through an overhaul under Michel Coulomb, the new head of the India operations who took over from Sanjay Kaul in December last year.
The iPhone maker is also seeking tax relief and other incentives from the government to begin assembling more handsets in the country and its proposal to set up a manufacturing unit is reportedly being evaluated.
In 2017, Apple sold nearly 3.2 million iPhones in India. As the company requires to increase its market cap by nearly six per cent to become a trillion-dollar company, can India pitch in?
According to industry experts, India is the fastest-growing among the top 20 smartphone markets globally, with a large untapped user base potential in Tier 5 and 6 cities and beyond.
The rapid growth of the smartphone market can be attributed to several factors like low smartphone penetration, inexpensive mobile data and growing aspirational middle class.
“As a result, the Indian smartphone market continues to look fertile in the coming years, helping brands grow and enhance their portfolios.
“Certainly, for Apple too, it’s a big market to target and grow as the aspirational buyers continue to opt for this luxury brand,” Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India, told IANS.
The current smartphone user base in India is at 400 million which is set to grow by leaps and bounds.
“Apple’s market share in India has grown in recent years. It is a premium range player and is performing well in that segment in the country,” says Anshul Gupta, Research Director at Gartner.
According to Gupta, like any other major player, the iPhone maker is bullish on the country and plans to expand its operations.
“Whether India will help it become the $1 trillion company is not known yet — but yes, the smartphone market in India is growing across price segments, providing ample opportunities for Apple,” Gupta told IANS.
Apart from Samsung, which recently unveiled the world’s largest mobile factory in India, another big worry for Apple are a couple of Chinese players who have wooed a big chunk of aspirational users who would otherwise have shifted to new iPhones.
“Chinese players like OnePlus and Oppo have stopped the flow of users to Apple by selling premium devices in the Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 range with the latest features. The charm of owning older iPhones is also over as large displays with better aspect ratios are now being preferred,” Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst at Forrester Research, told IANS.
Unless Apple manufactures the latest iPhones here and sells them cheap, things won’t change and may further deteriorate, he warned.
Compared to the US, India is a “mobile first” market and, hence, most of the digital services are designed around smartphones which makes them central to the users’ lives.
“However, compared to the US, the average selling price (ASP) in India is more skewed around $150, making it a tough market for Apple where even the older models such as iPhone 6S are being sold for $300 — thus reducing the overall total addressable market (TAM) opportunity for it to capitalise strongly,” Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, told IANS.
Today, “Apple has a two per cent share of smartphone sales in the Indian market and the remaining 98 per cent of the market has been warming up to, and becoming deeply entrenched in, the Android ecosystem,” Pathak added.
Apple is currently assembling just one model in India — the iPhone 6S (earlier it was iPhone SE which didn’t make much headway) — with its partner Wistron. Missing are the iPhone 7, 8 or X series which further distances Apple from the overall opportunity.
“Apple can still remain bullish on India with only 30 per cent of the population using smartphone and a potential opportunity for all the players in the mobile ecosystem, including Apple,” Pathak noted.
According to Joshi, Apple has been successful in India, evident from the fact that iPhone users are some of the most loyal users among all smartphone brands, waiting eagerly to get their hands on the new model of iPhone.
Still, being merely bullish may not help Apple in the near future. The time is ripe to take some concrete steps, bring India on its global sales map, and cross the $1 trillion-dollar hurdle.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, News, Social Media, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : In a landmark ruling when it comes to post-death digital rights, Germany’s highest court has told Facebook to grant a grieving mother access to her late daughter’s account.
Citing data protection laws, Facebook had earlier refused to allow the woman access to the profile of her 15-year-old daughter who was killed by an underground train in Berlin in 2012.
Judges at the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe in southwest Germany ruled on July 12 that “parents can inherit the contract between their child and a social media platform in the same way they would be able to inherit physical documents such as diaries and private letters”.
“From an inheritance law view, there is no reason to treat digital content differently,” the ruling said.
There are over two billion people on Facebook, 1.5 billion on WhatsApp, one billion on Instagram and 330 million on Twitter — out of which millions are from India.
There is no denying the fact that most of us spend a sizable amount of time on digital platforms and few of us actually think what will happen to our digital possessions once we die.
The latest ruling has reignited the debate on how to make digital platforms realise the need to transfer digital assets — personal photos, family videos and friendly posts — to the family once a member is no more.
“When someone dies leaving behind his email and social media accounts, the same are movable property and that being so, any heirs of the concerned person can seek right to access the same,” says Pavan Duggal, one of the nation’s top cyber law experts.
A “digital heir” can preserve those precious moments and gift those to future generations via tools such as an external hard disk, Cloud storage, pen drive or DVDs.
The said heirs can ask the digital/social media companies to get access after giving the necessary proof.
“Invariably, the service provider may not be inclined to give such access without any requisite order from the court of competent jurisdiction. This could mean getting a succession certificate from a court of competent jurisdiction which could be a time-consuming process,” Duggal told IANS.
The German ruling has done justice to a grieving women but the Indian cyber law has not even touched upon — let alone dwelt on the nuances of — the issue of one’s digital life post-death.
“It is pertinent to note that India does not have a dedicated law on digital inheritance, which is indeed unfortunate, given the rapid adoption of and reliance on the digital data by Indians,” Duggal lamented.
Facebook and WhatsApp each has over 200 million Indian users. The photo-sharing app Instagram, according to www.statista.com , has nearly 60 million users in India (as of April 2018).
According to statistician Hachem Sadikki from the University of Massachusetts, Facebook will become the world’s biggest virtual graveyard by the end of this century as there will be more profiles of dead people than of living users.
The social media giants, however, have formulated their own solutions to the problem.
Facebook “memorialises” your account and allows you to choose a “legacy contact”. No one can log into a “memorialised” account.
The “legacy contact” can “manage” your account by adding a pinned post (like a funeral announcement), respond to new friend requests and change the profile picture and cover photo — but nothing beyond that.
Google, which owns Gmail, YouTube and Picasa web albums, has an “Inactive Account Manager” feature which allows a user to nominate who has access to his or her information. If people don’t log on after a while, their accounts can be deleted or shared with a designated person.
According to Twitter, “In the event of the death of a Twitter user, we can work with a person authorised to act on behalf of the estate or with a verified immediate family member of the deceased to have an account deactivated.”
The micro-blogging site, however, says that “we are unable to provide account access to anyone regardless of his or her relationship to the deceased.”
From the security point of view, one has to safeguard digital impressions in case of death so that they are not used for anti-social purposes.
“Digital signatures/impressions generally have a validity/expiry date which require a yearly renewal and they are also equipped with a unique combination of passkey so even if someone has the digital signatures they must know the access key to use that,” noted social media analyst Anoop Mishra.
The law, however, is silent on this not just in India but in other countries too.
Several US states have been debating for years the question of whether families can access someone else’s digital assets after they die.
“The law has to intrinsically recognise that digital data and information, as also aspects pertaining to digital life, are integral components of our life and the law must provide for seamless inheritance of digital data,” Duggal noted.
According to the experts, rather than being allowing the accounts of digital users to lapse, it is imperative that the rights to the digital assets of the dead person be adequately recognised and granted to the relatives of the dead person.
The German ruling has opened a window for other countries to take cognizance and formulate laws that cater to digital inheritance.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Networking, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : Yoga guru Ramdev’s “swadeshi” mobile messaging app “Kimbho”, that appeared briefly in May-end claiming to take on the behemoth WhatsApp, has turned out to be a poorly-crafted business idea.
Patanjali, that posted a turnover of Rs 10,561 crore ($1.6 billion) in the financial year 2017, has been retracting its statements since the launch — first asking people to download the app from Google Play Store, then blaming extremely high traffic for its sudden death, later claiming it was just a one-day test and now asking for two more months for its relaunch.
The app disappeared from Google Play Store within a day of its launch on May 31 over security and performance concerns, leaving the country’s tech industry in a bit of shock.|
If you visit Google Play Store today, you will find at least a dozen fake versions of “Kimbho” which is a Sanskrit word and means “How are you?” or “What’s new?” — in the form of messaging app, TV, Status and what not.
The lingering question is: What was the haste to launch an app, touted as a challenge to Facebook-owned WhatsApp that has over tqo billion users globally and 200 million in India?
Famous French security researcher, who goes by the name of Elliot Alderson, called “Kimbho” a security disaster on Twitter. “This @KimbhoApp is a joke, next time before making press statements, hire competent developers… If it is not clear, for the moment don’t install this app,” Anderson tweeted.
In general course, if it is a Beta launch or a pilot run with a select group of users, the app runs for few weeks, the R&D team refines the product, the IT people plug the security loopholes, check the traffic control systems, apply scalable Cloud-based data management solutions and only then would the company push for a full-fledged launch.
“A messaging app like WhatsApp was build and sold to Facebook at the cost of $19 billion whereas the swadeshi Kimbho’s launcher Patanjali, with total net worth of nearly $2.5 billion, has zero contribution on IT solutions; hence the initiative had to flop in the first place,” Anoop Mishra, one of the nation’s leading social media experts, told IANS.
To run a world-class messaging app like WhatsApp requires top-of-the-line IT infrastructure.
“You need a team of Open Source experts, Cloud and content delivery network (CDN) experts, data engineers, an in-house team of core developers, API developers, user interface (UI) developers, in-house testing team and user data simulation team.
“You also need an outsourced hacking team which keeps finding the loopholes in the existing system which was completely missing in ‘Kimbho’ which was a poorly-scripted app,” Mishra contended.
Apart from the technical and programing infrastructure, a good messaging app requires industry-best third-party tools and scalable Cloud hosting servers to handle and respond to real-time database queries of millions of users so that the app survives the inbound traffic.
To build and run a word-class messaging app requires huge investment of time, tech expertise and money — and eventually needs 10 times more investment for handling servers, security issues and data breaches, Mishra noted.
According to Saket Modi, CEO and Co-Founder of cyber security firm Lucideus, companies nowadays are looking at products that are secure by design.
“Companies are moving from agile DevOps to agile DevSecOps, where security is now being thought of from the development phase itself,” Modi told IANS.
Lucideus was responsible for security assessments for apps like BHIM, Whats App for Payments and Google Tez.
According to Faisal Kawoosa, Head, New Initiatives, CyberMedia Research (CMR), it will not be easy for “Kimbho” to create a space dominated by WhatsApp by just being “Swadeshi”.
“The initial reviews are full of issues and concerns,” Kawoosa said.
“Kimbho” should ideally have seen a soft launch — without any comparison with WhatsApp — building on the momentum while deploying scalable, agile and secure Cloud-based solutions to make it run.
Building a world-class app perhaps needs much more effort than making toiletries or food products.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : As cybercrime becomes the new battlefield, Microsoft at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, is working round-the-clock to intercept, analyse and mitigate threats — creating a road-map for various industry stakeholders to plan relevant actions.
The Global Cybercrime Centre is witnessing in real-time at least one billion end-point devices being infected from over three million unique IP addresses worldwide — from Seattle to New Delhi.
The 100-member strong Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) at the centre is using Next-Gen technology — Cloud, Big Data, Machine Learning (ML) and Business Intelligence (BI) — to improve the security of its products and services, protect vulnerable populations, fight malware and reduce digital risks.
According to Shilpa Bratt, Director (Shared Services) of Digital Crimes Unit, a team of 3,500 professionals is looking at security, built into Microsoft products and services, using frameworks such as the security development lifecycle and operational security assurance.
“We see cyber threats coming in real time. We can look at top threats and the most infected countries. This is like reverse Olympics where you don’t want to be on the top,” Bratt told a select media delegation visiting the campus earlier this month.
Nearly 30 people sit at the DCU and the rest in around 30 offices globally, including in India. Microsoft has set up a Cybersecurity Engagement Centre in New Delhi to empower organisations with information and techniques to secure critical information infrastructure and help reduce malware and digital risk.
The biggest threat, according to the Indian-origin Microsoft executive, is inside the Dark Web — part of the World Wide Web (www) that requires special software to access websites and other services.
“Based on the research we’ve done, we’ve identified 20 markets in Dark Web that are selling over 12 million corporate credentials.
“Who is behind the crime? You’ve probably heard of the basement hacker or the hobbyist hacker but it has evolved over the years and has now switched to organised crime syndicates and nation-state attacks, that are out for financial and political gains,” she emphasised.
According to her, $8 trillion will be the estimated cost of cybercrime to the global economy by 2022.
Today, about 90 per cent of successful cyber attacks start with a phishing email.
“And who are the victims? The victims are all of us — individuals, businesses, governments and our families at the end of the day,” she added.
The DCU has people from various walks of life — investigators, attorneys, analysts, engineers and business professionals.
“We come from all walks of life but we are very passionate. We have this common thread that runs through us — to protect customers, enforcement action against cybercriminals and bring those to justice,” Bratt noted.
The DCU is housed in one of the 122 buildings at the sprawling Microsoft campus — in the close vicinity of the company’s legal department or CELA (Corporate External and Legal Affairs).
Cybercrime is constantly evolving and entering new areas like tech support fraud and online child exploitation, among others.
Back in 2009, Microsoft partnered with New Hampshire-based Dartmouth College to develop a technology called “PhotoDNA” that creates a hash to uniquely identify an image, and store that hash at the back-end to match similar images online to prevent child pornography.
Today, over 130 organisations including Facebook and Twitter, are using “PhotoDNA”. The Indian government recently announced to collaborate with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US to curb the circulation of rape videos and child porn.
“We offer ‘PhotoDNA’ for free to any company who can legitimately use it. It is a very robust technology. The amount of false positives is very minuscule. Because it has existed for some time and we’ve iterated on the technology, it is becoming better and better,” Bratt informed.
To bolster its efforts, Microsoft has also collaborated with various stakeholders like law enforcement agencies, cyber security vendors, customers, NGOs and academia.
“The team that sits in this lab is our analytics and innovation team which is constantly looking for insights in the data that can help us drive progress when it comes to fighting cybercrime. When we find something that works, we create a proof of concept, pilot it, incubate it and operationalise that analytic,” she informed.
“Innovation is very critical in this field. We are trying to stay one step ahead of cyber-criminals and what is working in our favour is amazing talent at Microsoft that specialise in ML and AI,” Bratt said.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
Barcelona : In a bid to take the 3D printing industry to an entirely new level, global printing and PC major HP Inc has announced that its 3D metal printing solutions are set to enter the market later this year, thus giving the $12 trillion global manufacturing opportunity a new push.
HP, which entered the Additive Manufacturing (AM) field in 2016, currently has industrial-grade Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printing solutions that produce polymer (plastic)-based products.
“We will do an announcement on metal printing later this year and unveil to the world what kind of technology we will use. There are several metal technologies out there and we will share which we have zeroed in on to move forward and invest further,” Ramon Pastor, Vice President and General Manager of Multi Jet Fusion, HP, told IANS.
Pastor confirmed what HP CEO Dion Weisler has been telling the world since late last year that HP plans to sell 3D printers that produce metal objects.
Several engineers and researchers are working on the future 3D printing technology in a highly secure HP facility here which is the ‘Ground Zero’ of its 3D printing dreams.
Printing metal-based products will open a whole new opportunity for HP — from automotive to defence, from aerospace to orthopedic and dental implants.
The global 3D printing metals’ market is expected to reach $2.86 billion by 2025, according to US-based Grand View Research, and Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness significant growth — driven by rapidly growing manufacturing sector and high economic development in China, India and Southeast Asian countries.
“We will soon share our go-to-market strategies and some of the key timings when it comes to 3D metal printing,” Pastor said.
Metal 3D printing has been widely adopted by the aerospace and defence industry in major regions across the world.
According to Pune-based MarketsandMarkets, Titanium and its alloys are mainly used in aerospace engineering applications such as manufacturing of engine components as they offer high strength, are lightweight and provide superior resistance to corrosion.
Due to bio-compatibility, they are also used in bio-medical applications such as orthopedic and dental implants as well as artificial knee and hip replacement surgeries.
The volume of 3D-printed metals consumed by the aerospace and defence sector constitute more than one-third of the total 3D printing metals end-user market, said MarketsandMarkets in a recent report.
Several well-known firms like Desktop Metal, 3D Systems, EOS and Stratasys, among others, and a number of start-ups are focused on building and supplying metal 3D printers.
Companies like GE Additive are utilising metal 3D printing for the development of aerospace parts.
In such a scenario, the early adopters with some strategic collaboration and acquisition moves will quickly gain the bigger pie of the market.
“We are open to collaborations in the 3D printing market. We have already done some key partnerships with 3D experience leader Dassault Systems, German conglomerate company Siemens and some material manufacturers to maintain the ecosystem in place,” Pastor noted.
“We are aiming to collaborate with more stakeholders to make sure that customers get end-to-end solutions on time,” he added.
On the acquisition part, the HP executive said that the company will keep the options open but currently has no such plans.
“So far, it is more organic development at our end, but we will keep our options open. Currently, we are building our technology organically,” Pastor told IANS.
Apart from manufacturing, the HP executive is bullish on the prototyping industry.
“We are ready with the low-cost 300/500 series MJF 3D printers especially for prototyping. We want to give designers a way to prototype on the same technology that they will use while manufacturing final parts,” Pastor explained.
The HP Jet Fusion 300/500 Series — available for $50,000 in the second half of 2018 — will enable small-to-medium-sized product development teams and design businesses, entrepreneurs and universities and research institutions.
It will enable manufacturers to produce engineering-grade, functional parts in full colour, black or white.
“No matter your industry, no matter your design complexity, no matter what colours fit your business needs, the new HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series gives you the freedom to create brilliant new parts liberated from the constraints of traditional production methods,” Stephen Nigro, President of 3D Printing, HP Inc, said recently.
(Nishant Arora was in Barcelona on an invitation of HP. He can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
